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Harold Grenfell
}}|'Alternative style' }}} }| } }}} |} The Rt. Hon. Dr. Harold Grenfell MP PC BA MA PhD is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Chipping Barnet, Secretary of State for the Environment and Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. He also served as Secretary of State for the Environment from 1970 until 1974 as well as Shadow Education Secretary from 1974 until 1975. Early Life Harold Thomas Grenfell was born to Stephen Grenfell and Joan Grenfell (nee Morgan) on 15th March 1920 in High Barnet in the London Borough of Barnet. His father was a solicitor and his mother worked as a secretary to an accountant. He was first educated at the local primary school from 1924 until 1931. He then went on to secondary school at Queen Elizabeth's School for Boys, and studied there from 1931 until 1939. He was to return there nine years later, but in an altogether different guise. He chose to go to University at Queen Mary College, London. He chose first to study Politics, and gained a BA in 1942. He then progressed on to History, which he again studied at Queen Mary College. He gained an MA (Hons) in 1945. He then studied History to the level of doctorate, once again at Queen Mary, and gained a doctorate in 1948. He then chose to go into teaching. By coincidence, a teaching post had opened up at his old school, Queen Elizabeth's School for Boys. He started teaching there only a few months after he had graduated in September 1948. He taught in that position for five years, when he was promoted to Head of the History Department at the school. He also got married to a hospital doctor, Meredith Clarke, in 1957. Their son, Arthur, was born a year later and their duaghter Claudia was born in 1960. He was also active in the Conservative Association of the constituency of Barnet, and was selected as Prospective Parliamentary candidate for Barnet in time for the 1959 general election. He won with a majority of 13,399. Parliamentary Career For the early part of his parliamentary career, Harold remained on the backbenches. With a young family as well as being a new MP, he chose not to accept any of the ministerial posts offered to him, but he took an active part in debates in the House. He supported every attempt to join the EEC, and became a key supporter of Edward Heath in the first Conservative leadership election in 1965. However, he again decided not to accept a Shadow ministerial post, but debated the Abortion and Sexual Offences Acts passionately. He also spoke out against Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech, declaring it 'wrongheaded, inflammatory and subversive'. By 1969, however, with his son eleven and daughter nine, he accepted the post of Shadow Minister for Housing and Local Government. He went into the 1970 election with that post, and when Edward Heath formed the government in June, he was invited to become Secretary of State for the Environment, a post newly created by Heath. He stayed in that post until the Februrary 1974 election, and was a key supporter of Heath within the Cabinet, particularly on EEC entry. Grenfell left Government in Februrary 1974, and was appointed to serve as Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Science. He supported Edward Heath in the first ballot of Conservative MPs in 1975, and Willie Whitelaw in the second. He was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet by Margaret Thatcher after she became Leader, and has remained on the backbenches ever since. He campaigned to stay in the EEC in the 1975 referendum, and was a notable supporter of the select committee system promoted by Norman St. John-Stevas. Interests His interests are history, Europe, politics, local government and the cello. He speaks German fluently, and has been a Member of the European Movement since 1954. Division Record Voted for Criminal Justice Act 1961 Voted for Rail Transport Act 1962 Voted for Peerage Act 1963 Voted for Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act 1965 Voted for Abortion Act 1967 Voted for Sexual Offences Act 1967 Voted for Theatres Act 1968 Voted against Decimal Currency Act 1969 Voted for Divorce (Reform) Act 1969 Voted against Representation of the People Act 1969 Voted for Equal Pay Act 1970 Voted for European Communities Act 1972 Voted for Sex Discrmination Act 1975 Voted for Race Relations Act 1976 Abstained on Housing Act 1980 Voted against Capital Punishment (Reinstitution) Act 1981